About 150 soldiers and police officers from Australia and New Zealand have arrived in Tonga following an appeal for help to restore order after riots. At least eight people died when crowds ransacked much of the centre of the Pacific nation's capital, Nuku'alofa. The city is now said to be calm but a state of emergency has been declared. The unrest was sparked by concern about the slow pace of democratic reform. The government has now announced major changes ahead of elections in 2008. Australia has sent about 85 of the troops and police officers deployed, with New Zealand providing the remainder. Australia's Prime Minister John Howard and his New Zealand counterpart Helen Clark announced the mission at a joint press conference in Vietnam, where they are attending a regional summit. ... http://news.bbc.co.uk

U.S.-led coalition and Iraqi forces on Saturday were searching for five Western security contractors seized in southern Iraq as well as hostages taken in a mass kidnapping at a Baghdad research institute this week. An Iranian-run Arabic-language satellite news station, al-Alam, aired a video Saturday the station said was from a group claiming to have abducted four Americans and an Austrian at a fake checkpoint. The video showed a man wearing a white head scarf wrapped around his face but no evidence of the abductees or that his group, Islamic Mujahedeen Battalion, had them.The five contractors were abducted after crossing Iraq's southern border from Kuwait on Thursday.During al-Alam's broadcast, the man's voice was inaudible and the station's presenter said the video was from the group that claimed to have kidnapped the contractors and killed four other Americans.CNN is unable to independently verify the authenticity of the video. ...http://www.cnn.com/2006/WORLD/meast/11/18/iraq.main/index.html?eref=rss_world

Tony Blair has publicly agreed with the opinion that the violence in Iraq since the 2003 invasion has been a disaster. The UK prime minister was responding to a question by Sir David Frost in an interview on the new al-Jazeera English-language Arabic TV channel. The Liberal Democrats said Mr Blair had finally accepted the enormity of his decision to go to war in Iraq. But Downing Street insisted his views had been misrepresented and that he had not made "some kind of admission". A spokesman said the prime minister often agreed with interviewers when he responded to their questions. Mr Blair was challenged by Sir David over the violence in Iraq, saying it had "so far been pretty much of a disaster". ...http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/politics/6160466.stm

International opinion has started to turn against Israel after its army killed Palestinian civilians this month, Arab and Muslim officials said in Saudi Arabia on Saturday. "There is growing international resentment over Israel's actions and policies … we must take advantage of this change to stop Israel acting like a country above the law," said Ekmeleddin Ihsanoglu, secretary-general of the 57-nation Organisation of the Islamic Conference (OIC). He urged a meeting of the Saudi-based body to organize diplomatic action to help the Palestinians. The U.N. General Assembly voted overwhelmingly on Friday to deplore a deadly Israeli artillery attack in Gaza earlier this month, defying a U.S. veto which blocked similar condemnation at the U.N. Security Council. On November 8 Israeli shelling killed 19 Palestinian civilians at Beit Hanoun in the Gaza Strip, part of ongoing military operations against Palestinian militants. ...http://abcnews.go.com/US/wireStory?id=2664238

Afghan President Hamid Karzai has warned that instability in Afghanistan poses a huge threat to peace and prosperity in the whole region. Mr Karzai's blunt message came at a conference in India where he urged neighbouring nations to continue and boost their help for his country. "The job is not over and the stakes are still very high," Mr Karzai said. The UN World Food Programme has warned it cannot feed millions of Afghans who will depend on it during the winter. The meeting in Delhi, attended by representatives from Pakistan, Iran and several other countries, is aimed at improving Afghanistan's economy by involving its neighbours in reconstruction. But opening the conference, Mr Karzai said extremism and violence by militant groups remained a fearsome challenge five years after his government began rebuilding Afghanistan....http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/south_asia/6160642.stm

Spanish Minister of Foreign Affairs Miguel Angel Moratinos sought Friday to reassure Israel over a new Mideast peace initiative proposed the day before by Spain, France and Italy, saying that there was nothing in the plan "that Israel can reject."Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni said Thursday that Israel rejected the new peace initiative out of hand. She told Moratinos that it was unacceptable for an initiative concerning Israel to be launched without coordination with Jerusalem.Livni also told Moratinos that if the sponsors of the initiative were so inclined, they should seek to hold dialogue with Israel on any new plan. But Moratinos told Haaretz on Friday he had spoken to his Israeli counterpart about the initiative, in what he described was a "good conversation," and had "tried to convince her that it's not an anti-Israeli plan."He said that, "at the end of the conversation it was fine," and promised to provide Livni with "all the details."...http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/789009.html